Relative Something

Thank goodness for the easy resource of the internet. I knew nothing about mandolins at the time I received this wonderful gift from my family. One of the first things I did was search for sites that offered chord charts. That worked easy enough for G, C, and D. But as I moved up the neck I couldn’t get things to sound right. When I played individual notes on higher frets, it sounded out of tune. I wondered if there was something wrong with the way the instrument was made. The intonation was off.

A quick study of online resources provided me with a wonderful video of the proper set up of the adjustable bridge on a mandolin. This was all new to me. By following the instructions, I was able to correct the problem and suddenly it was like a whole new instrument. What fun!

One thing that I believe will aid in my learning how to eventually become proficient on the instrument is that Cyndie claims to like the sounds she is hearing, even though, so far, it has been more misses than hits, as I hunt and peck for the proper notes. Seems to me that when I briefly attempted to master a fiddle –trying to figure out both the trick of having no frets, and using a bow– my struggles toward mastery were met with much less appreciation.